Birkie
Okay, so it has taken me a lifetime to finally do a post about the Birkie but I've been busy and I got a nasty cold. I wanted to document the event but blogging motivation is not super high right now. However, how could I skip blogging about an event where I met my race goal - to enjoy the event enough to do it again.
After last year's Birkie debacle I had low expectations this year. I trained hard in Oct/Nov but then got H1N1 flu, skipped my planned trip to West Yellowstone, and generally stopped trying. At some point I told Dave that I was going to classic the Birkie as I had stopped enjoying skating. Everytime I went out to do a long skate ski I found that I wasn't enjoying it and couldn't fathom skating the Birkie again. The only problem with my plan to classic the Birkie was that I didn't know how to stride - sure I could double pole pretty well but that wasn't going to be enough to survive the Birkie.
Luckily one day in early January my brain finally clicked and just like that I could stride. Not great but enough. So I did the Seeley Classic 22k race to test out my new skill and even with a jaeger/red bull shot at the 11k to go mark I did great, felt great and most importantly had fun. That lead me to the Mora 42k classic which is mostly double poling but still was a step in building my confidence that I could classic ski a marathon distance event. That race went well and I had fun so the Birkie Classic was on (and they even put me in Wave 4 based on my Mora results).
One of the hardest parts about classic skiing is getting the kick wax right as bad kick wax can make for a long day. Luckily I'm a member of the CXC Master's Team and so the CXC team waxers would be doing my skis and I knew they would test 15 million combinations to find the secret to success (and for the record they did a freaking amazing job on the team's skis). Being a member of CXC kicks butt on so many levels (support an organization that is making a difference, get to know lots of other cool athletes from jrs to elites to masters, fast looking ski suits, good training camps and waxing at the Birkie).
I was nervous race day after having a bad day last year and realizing that 54k of classic skiing is really a big day of skiing. However, I reminded myself that if striding was tiring I could double-pole or kick double-pole or herring bone and that it wouldn't just be skating, skating, skating.
Anyway, in a nut shell the race was awesome - fun at times, really hard at times, really fast at times and totally manageable). I reminded myself to go out slow as I noticed in my other races that I have a tendency to go out fast as I am much more of a half marathon distance skier. I stuck to my plan, sometimes stayed behind slower people on the uphills to conserve energy and refused to worry about who was passing me or who I was passing. No need to get too concerned about Wave 5 passing me or too over excited because I'm passing people from Wave 3. It was an awesome feeling as my biggest problem with skating is just skiing easy and at a manageable pace.
One big area of improvement for me this season was being efficient at the aid stations. I usually would lose the group I was with as I lingered overly long going through the aid stations. This year I told myself that I would speed up and I did. I still took on enough food drink but without spending too much time.
Was it hard? Absolutely. I love the new Classic trail for the Birkie but you still have to climb a lot of hills and it is 54k. When you're skiing along and you still have 30k left to go it does seem a bit overwhelming. And at 10k to go I was feeling it and wishing I had done more than one 35k and one 42k ski for training. On the 2nd to last downhill I got wildly out of control attempting to get out of the classic track and took what was described by the people behind me as a spectacular fall complete with a full roll. However, I felt strong double-poling across the lake and down Main Street.
I felt so great that when I hit the lake I was able to do a totally "pro" jager shot hand up. Each year there is a table on the lake and they are handing out jager shots. I figured with my experience with beer hand ups in cross that I would have to take one. And if I do say so myself I did awesome. I grabbed the plastic shot glass without stopping and then downed the shot on the move (spilling some on myself), and threw the glass down. I got some good cheers from the people at the table! Jager really burns going down and unlike at the Seeley Classic there was no water to wash it down. It was fun though even if it does taste nasty.
For this race I had written "Live Fully" on the toe of my boot. It was in honor of Garett Kipp who died at 36 from cancer shortly before the Birkie. In 2009 we skied together a bit during the Birkie before he passed me up on his way to a great race. Shortly thereafter he was diagnosed with cancer. I wrote that on my boot so if I got in a tough spot in the race I would remember how great it was just to be out there.
All I can say is what a great year! I don't care if I move up a wave or down a wave or whatever. I had a good day which was amazing given my preperation and the fact that it wasn't that long ago I couldn't figure out the secret to striding. I even skied 1 second per kilometer faster this year than I did skating last year. I may be a classic specialist!
Thanks to everyone at CXC for their support - especially the waxers, the camp coaches and Yuriy. Without Yuriy's patient coaching I certainly wouldn't have figured out any part of ski technique. Also huge thanks to Dave who not only bought me classic skis for Valentine's Day several years back even though I didn't really want them but also for helping me with my classic skiing so much this year and getting me classic rollerskis. I couldn't have done it without him since he clearly has more faith in my ability than I do.
Photos
After last year's Birkie debacle I had low expectations this year. I trained hard in Oct/Nov but then got H1N1 flu, skipped my planned trip to West Yellowstone, and generally stopped trying. At some point I told Dave that I was going to classic the Birkie as I had stopped enjoying skating. Everytime I went out to do a long skate ski I found that I wasn't enjoying it and couldn't fathom skating the Birkie again. The only problem with my plan to classic the Birkie was that I didn't know how to stride - sure I could double pole pretty well but that wasn't going to be enough to survive the Birkie.
Luckily one day in early January my brain finally clicked and just like that I could stride. Not great but enough. So I did the Seeley Classic 22k race to test out my new skill and even with a jaeger/red bull shot at the 11k to go mark I did great, felt great and most importantly had fun. That lead me to the Mora 42k classic which is mostly double poling but still was a step in building my confidence that I could classic ski a marathon distance event. That race went well and I had fun so the Birkie Classic was on (and they even put me in Wave 4 based on my Mora results).
One of the hardest parts about classic skiing is getting the kick wax right as bad kick wax can make for a long day. Luckily I'm a member of the CXC Master's Team and so the CXC team waxers would be doing my skis and I knew they would test 15 million combinations to find the secret to success (and for the record they did a freaking amazing job on the team's skis). Being a member of CXC kicks butt on so many levels (support an organization that is making a difference, get to know lots of other cool athletes from jrs to elites to masters, fast looking ski suits, good training camps and waxing at the Birkie).
I was nervous race day after having a bad day last year and realizing that 54k of classic skiing is really a big day of skiing. However, I reminded myself that if striding was tiring I could double-pole or kick double-pole or herring bone and that it wouldn't just be skating, skating, skating.
Anyway, in a nut shell the race was awesome - fun at times, really hard at times, really fast at times and totally manageable). I reminded myself to go out slow as I noticed in my other races that I have a tendency to go out fast as I am much more of a half marathon distance skier. I stuck to my plan, sometimes stayed behind slower people on the uphills to conserve energy and refused to worry about who was passing me or who I was passing. No need to get too concerned about Wave 5 passing me or too over excited because I'm passing people from Wave 3. It was an awesome feeling as my biggest problem with skating is just skiing easy and at a manageable pace.
One big area of improvement for me this season was being efficient at the aid stations. I usually would lose the group I was with as I lingered overly long going through the aid stations. This year I told myself that I would speed up and I did. I still took on enough food drink but without spending too much time.
Was it hard? Absolutely. I love the new Classic trail for the Birkie but you still have to climb a lot of hills and it is 54k. When you're skiing along and you still have 30k left to go it does seem a bit overwhelming. And at 10k to go I was feeling it and wishing I had done more than one 35k and one 42k ski for training. On the 2nd to last downhill I got wildly out of control attempting to get out of the classic track and took what was described by the people behind me as a spectacular fall complete with a full roll. However, I felt strong double-poling across the lake and down Main Street.
I felt so great that when I hit the lake I was able to do a totally "pro" jager shot hand up. Each year there is a table on the lake and they are handing out jager shots. I figured with my experience with beer hand ups in cross that I would have to take one. And if I do say so myself I did awesome. I grabbed the plastic shot glass without stopping and then downed the shot on the move (spilling some on myself), and threw the glass down. I got some good cheers from the people at the table! Jager really burns going down and unlike at the Seeley Classic there was no water to wash it down. It was fun though even if it does taste nasty.
For this race I had written "Live Fully" on the toe of my boot. It was in honor of Garett Kipp who died at 36 from cancer shortly before the Birkie. In 2009 we skied together a bit during the Birkie before he passed me up on his way to a great race. Shortly thereafter he was diagnosed with cancer. I wrote that on my boot so if I got in a tough spot in the race I would remember how great it was just to be out there.
All I can say is what a great year! I don't care if I move up a wave or down a wave or whatever. I had a good day which was amazing given my preperation and the fact that it wasn't that long ago I couldn't figure out the secret to striding. I even skied 1 second per kilometer faster this year than I did skating last year. I may be a classic specialist!
Thanks to everyone at CXC for their support - especially the waxers, the camp coaches and Yuriy. Without Yuriy's patient coaching I certainly wouldn't have figured out any part of ski technique. Also huge thanks to Dave who not only bought me classic skis for Valentine's Day several years back even though I didn't really want them but also for helping me with my classic skiing so much this year and getting me classic rollerskis. I couldn't have done it without him since he clearly has more faith in my ability than I do.
Photos
posted by MadCross at 2:47 PM
5 Comments:
awesome write-up Renee, and congrats! I only hope some day I'll be a strong enough skier to tackle this one. It's such a huge accomplishment.
Hi there - Found your blog while searching for descriptions of the classic race. I'm signed up for 2011, but am having some anxiety issues around the tracks and downhills. Perhaps you can help by answering my burning question.
I've become a pretty competent skier by working hard over the last few years. I'm no daredevil, though, and almost ALWAYS step out of the tracks on downhills. I'm just not comfortable with the speed in the tracks, or being forced into a line.
So all that said, is there plenty of room to get out of the tracks on the downhills? Or are skiers forced to stay totally in the tracks, or at most take one ski out to snowplow with?
Thanks SO much!
Posting again as other than anonymous, in hopes you see my message. Thanks! :-)
Hi there - Found your blog while searching for descriptions of the classic race. I'm signed up for 2011, but am having some anxiety issues around the tracks and downhills. Perhaps you can help by answering my burning question.
I've become a pretty competent skier by working hard over the last few years. I'm no daredevil, though, and almost ALWAYS step out of the tracks on downhills. I'm just not comfortable with the speed in the tracks, or being forced into a line.
So all that said, is there plenty of room to get out of the tracks on the downhills? Or are skiers forced to stay totally in the tracks, or at most take one ski out to snowplow with?
Thanks SO much!
The great part of the first half of the Birkie is that the tracks are groomed best line. That makes a lot of the downhills much easier to stay in the tracks as it is the perfect line. The second half of the race has the skate lane so it is easy to be in or out of the track.
I don't remember for the first half of the race how often they pulled the tracks completely for downhills. In a couple of cases I think they did. In later waves I think probably the tracks get snowplowed out a bit more depending on the conditions.
I definitely remember taking one ski out to snowplow just to slow down to avoid running up on someone with slower skis.
All in all I would say the downhills are so much less of an issue in the classic race as the hills are generally not as steep. I'm not that great on the downhills and I thought the Birkie classic was not too bad for those of us who lack awesome downhilling skills. They've really laid out the classic race course really well.
Thank you, Renee! That helps alot. I've had a chance to find various other classic skiers to allay my fears, somewhat, but your reply is definitely additionally helpful. Phew, getting close now. Less than 3 weeks! Can't wait to get there and get 'er done. Gets wearying thinking about it and having it looming on the horizon, don't you think? Thanks again!
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